How to Grow Dahlias

Its been a while.  Between attending night classes to get my teaching license and trying to wrap up my first year teaching high school its been a little bit hectic.  But school is out in a week and a half so there are no more excuses. 

I'm going to write about something I've been meaning to write since last summer: Dahlias.  I had a childhood friend whose mother grew fantastic dahlias under their bay window.  The blossoms ranged in color from bright pink to fiery orange.  Some blooms were small, others spanned about eight inches across. Time passed and I had mostly forgotten about this vibrant, flowering tuber until a trip to the Madrid Botanical Gardens. 

Dahlia bulbs can be purchased from about April to May.  Its best to plant them when temperatures are consistently 60 degrees or so.  Plant the tubers horizontally in the soil about 6" under.  Dahlias spread about two feet so make sure that you're spacing the tubers 48" from each other.  Once the Dahlias have started to sprout and grow, pinch back terminal buds for fuller, bushier plants.


*Remember that Dahlia tubers are not perennial.  Make sure to dig up the tubers after the first hard frost and store them in a cool dark place {such as a shoebox in the garage} with a some moist sawdust until next spring. 

How to Take Care of Your Air Plant- Tillandsia

All through high school and into college I worked at a beautiful garden center.  The owner's sister managed the greenhouse.  I spent countless hours learning how to properly water hydrangeas, and trim angel vine toparies.  Upon return from a buying trip in California, she brought me an air plant and a 100 year old chunck of grape wood to display it on.  Sadly, my air plant wasnt long lived.  Because it requires so little care, air plants can be easily forgotten. The waterings were so infrequent that I missed them all together, and it was up on an obscure shelf where the air plant easily went unoticed. 

Fast forward to last weekend.  I got my hands on a beautiful piece of cholla cactus with the idea of decorating my coffee table.  I thought back to Christine and my 100 year old grape wood and decided to give another air plant a try.  I drove up to Cactus and Tropicals, a nursery that specializes in houseplants, to purchase the perfect Tillandsia.  With the hopes of keeping this air plant alive, I've researched Tillandsia and its care requirements.

So... air plants or Tillandsia grow the best in humid environments.  Now my apartment in Orem, UT is anything but humid. The good news is that humidity can be falsified.  By lightly misting the air plant once or twice a week, or soaking it in a bowl of water every two weeks, the plant can survivie in drier climates. 

Tillandsias prefer bright, filtered light.  Direct light from window sills are is a definite no.  Instead try place your plant a few feet away from a bright window. 

Because air plants survive without soil, they can be attached to pretty much anything.  Branches of driftwood, cholla cactus, manzanita, or grape wood are great decorative options.  You can also use sea shells, rock, or glass terrariums.  Air plants can be mounted using a non water soluable glue or silicone caulk.    

Patience. . . .

Snow still wraps itself tightly around the perimeter of my yard forming a barrier that thwarts the hopeful bulbs patiently waiting their turn to peek through snowy boundaries and test the cool temperatures of Spring.  The border hold me at bay like a child waiting for a turn at a pinata.

I hear that temperatures will soar by Saturday and I've mentioned to my children that Saturday will be a yard work day.  I think the threat is just real enough that they may be hoping for one last snow storm --nothing too big -just something that will be a bit of a deterrent for a mom who is anxious get started in the yard.

Online Plant Catalogs

I love shopping at my local garden center.  Supporting my community’s economy is just one benefit of this style of shopping. The other reason is much more selfish.  When I venture to my favorite garden center I get to wander through displays of arborvitaes and knock out roses.  I never make a quick trip to my favorite nursery, I’ll spend an hour or more meandering down the rows of perennials, looking at wave petunias and listening to the babbling of fountains.   A purchase as simple as a packet of seeds or a bag of planting mix turns into a quest for design inspiration as a stroll, very slowly, towards the cash register. 

But…. If you, like me, are living in a climate where nurseries are not open year round you can run into some problems.  Lack of seeds to start in March, or limited stock and supply when garden centers emerge from hibernation in early spring can be frustrating.  There is a solution.  Join me on a walk through a virtual nursery open 365 days a year 24/7.  Welcome to the world of Burpee. 

I check my mailbox religiously this time of year for the Burpee catalog, but there is really no need to wait.  Their website is more interactive, informative, and easy to use.  At www.burpee.com you can browse through their offerings of vegetables, flowers, perennials, herbs, and fruit.  They even offer organics and heirloom varieties.  Under each of these categories you’ll find new plant varieties, some Burpee exclusives that you’ll only find on their site or in their catalog.  This year I’m looking forward to trying…..

On Deck Corn

 

 

Shooting Stars Eggplant

Ava Agastache

Sante Shasta Daisy

Burpee offers both seeds and started plants, giving you either the satisfaction of beginning your own garden, or a jump start on the season.  I’ve never had many concerns with ordering seed online.  I’ve known that when the seed arrived I could plant them at my leisure.  Growing plants were an entirely different matter.  I worried about trying to time my order and shipping with appropriate planting times for my zone.  Burpee takes away all of those worries and concerns.  They delay shipping for your products until the appropriate planting time for your zone. 

 

 

Log on to Burpee.com, take a walk through the veggies and meander through the perennials.  I’m sure you’ll find inspiration, just like in your favorite garden center.  The only thing missing will be the smell of honeysuckle, the crunch of gravel, and the sound of fountains.     

*all photos from www.burpee.com 

The Resurrection Fern

I love houseplants in the winter.  There's something about greenery indoors in the middle of a bleak January that eases my cabin feaver.  Many housplants {especially ferns} help purify and clean the indoor air.  Clean air is hard to come by this week due to the Utah Valley inversion.  When I look out my window at the hazy smog I feel some comfort in the fact that I have a few housplants working to rid my air of the toxins creeping in from outside. Yes, I love housplants in the winter, but my love for housplants is seasonal.

I can't stand having houseplants in the summer. When the garden is producing delicious leafy things, when the perennials are in full blossom, and the patio containers have verbena trickling down their sides I have little tolerance for indoor plants.  This might seem ungrateful, considering all they did for me over the winter, but its the turth.  My plants indoors can feel neglected since I'm spending most my time outside deadheading and fertilizing.  So I usually gather up all my housplants and move them to the shadier parts of my yard. The lucky survivors of a few cool september nights have the luxury of being invited back in for the winter {providing they bring no insects or pests with them}.

There is another solution for my seasonal need for indoor green.  How about a plant you can kill near the end of March when the tulips begin to bloom and revive in October when you've trimmed your last perennial to the ground.  Impossible you say?  Let me introduce you to the resurrection fern.

This fern, native to the southeastern United States and Africa, is a remarkable little plant.  Its name is derived from its ability to survive very long periods of drought.  This fern is an epiphyte or an air plant, which means it gets nutrients and water from the air.  You can set them in a dish of water and within minutes they'll start to open their fronds and turn green.  A constant supply of water will keep them happy and thriving.  As their water supply dries out they begin to curl and turn brown once again. 

I like to keep mine on my coffee table.  There's no conversation piece like a plant that cant be killed.  During the summer months I store it carfully in a dry, dark place and bring it out agian in winter for some air-purifying greenery.

I found mine at a local specialty nursery, Cactus and Tropicals in Salt Lake City, but you can also order them online.  You can also find them on Amazon sold in different sizes and varieties.